"Luci! Luci!!" Eve flies through Crystal City, calling her brother's name in a worried tone.
"Brother, where are you!?" Claire is also looking for Lucien.
The sisters head towards the central part of the city and quickly see Lucien surrounded by Mermaids in front of the big castle.
"Luci!!" Eve quickly flies toward him, and the Mermaids make way for her to reach Lucien and hug him tightly.
"Big sis..." Lucien tries to speak, but it's hard due to Eve hugging him so madly. "Calm down, I'm fine, I'm fine..."
"Pride was reporting to me of your situation, but then she stopped talking all of a sudden..." Eve explains. "I was so worried!"
Claire quickly arrives beside them and laughs at Eve's flushed face as she hugs Lucien.
"Greed also got quiet suddenly." Claire comments. "I thought I'd be happy when the day came when she finally stopped yammer in my head, but I'm not relieved now."
"They run out of demonic energy helping me with the barrier." Lucien explains. "They just need some time to recover."
"Makes sense…" Eve keeps concerned eyes as she continues to hug Lucien. "We've never run out of demonic energy this way since the beginning... and I feel so weak."
Lucien still doesn't understand how Eve feels about them getting closer and closer to crossing the sibling border, but that situation requires him to be determined.
So he doesn't think twice before kissing her lips, sending waves of his demonic energy inside her body, making her quickly feel invigorated.
Eve still feels a little embarra.s.sed that she needs Lucien's help so much and can't help him enough in return.
But she has already accepted that he is the strongest among them currently, so accepting his help is the wisest decision. Also, her little brother's success will always be a reason to make her proud; after all, they are family.
Lucien continues kissing Eve in front of thousands of Mermaids and only stops to look at Claire. "Don't be shy; we need to stay together now."
"..." Claire really wants to be with Lucien in every way possible, but she doesn't feel confident enough for that, especially when the one in his arms right now is Eve.
"Come on, Luci..." Eve shakes her head. "Claire is with Greed, but you are the most ambitious person here for wanting all your sisters to have that kind of relations.h.i.+p with you."
Lucien cannot deny that desire exists within his heart, but now he cannot enjoy the moment with his sisters because there are only concerns in his eyes.
"We don't have time for that right now; we need to recover immediately." He explains while looking at the dark clouds still in the sky.
Claire also looks up at the sky with a thoughtful expression. "Isn't that over?? The monsters seem to be over, though."
"The monsters may be over, but it's far from the end..." Lucien responds. "I've been to the Naga Kingdom and seen hundreds of thousands of soldiers; most of them don't seem to like Tyrion, but they are loyal to him out of fear."
"Do you think he'll still attack after we've killed all those monsters without losing a single soldier?" Eve asks.
Eve's words make sense; after the incredible feat they did, any army would have to rethink the idea of attacking the Mermaid army boosted by Lucien and the Sins.
Yet, not only does Tyrion have hundreds of thousands of Nagas in the Sky and Immortal Realm, but he also has Tanu on his side.
And although the Siren couldn't give Tyrion even a tiny percentage of Lucien's ability to empower women, she taught him how to use dark magic to empower his soldiers in corrupt ways as he did to those Krakens.
In the end, people's intelligence is a very important differential that makes the Naga army much more dangerous than hundreds of Krakens.
Before Lucien can explain that to Eve and Claire, Saria and Kamala appear.
"Lucien, are you okay??" The Naga Princess asks while Kamala already asked that question mentally.
"How are the troops??" He ignores the question about his situation and quickly asks about the Mermaids and female Nagas.
Seeing that Lucien is okay, Saria sighs in relief before quickly reporting about the army. "I still can't believe we did this without losing any soldiers... but many are wounded, and all are exhausted."
Before Lucien can sigh in relief as well, Ramla flies over the city and calls them out. "There's something happening on the horizon!"
Still hugging Eve, Lucien flies into the sky, followed by the other girls. They see thousands of black dots emerging from portals two miles away in all directions around the city.
"He's already here..." Lucien comments as he continues to send every drop of demonic energy to Eve's body to wake Pride up as quickly as possible.
"d.a.m.n! He's bringing the whole army." Kamala comments in a concerned tone.
"What should we do???" Saria can't help but look at Lucien.
"We can't run away; they are everywhere..." Ramla comments.
"Fleeing was never the intention." Lucien speaks in a determined tone. "We're going to end this war today."
"But we don't stand a chance without Nea and the others…" Kamala comments.
"They are already close." He speaks as his eyes glow purple and gold.
"How close?" Saria asks while getting more hopeful now.
"I'm not sure." Lucien responds. "I just felt Sophia's presence approaching, so they must be a few hundred miles away yet."
"How far can you feel she??" Claire gets shocked.
"As I said, I'm not sure." He explains as he looks around, looking for any sign of Tyrion.
"Okay, what's the plan?" Eve asks.
"We have to hold them off until the others arrive..." Lucien comments as he stops hugging Eve. "But the soldiers can't fight this way, and Pride is still recovering..."
Eve can see in Lucien's eyes that he already has a plan, but she only grows more concerned. "I don't like this, Luci."
He lovingly caresses her face. "Trust me and stay here with the others."
She strokes his hand. "I've promised many times that I'd never leave your side..."
"And you kept your promise so far." He smiles and kisses her lips again. "That doesn't mean leave me... I need you to protect our people while I buy us time."
Eve wishes she could be more useful to Lucien, but due to the lack of demonic energy, she is too weak while he is regenerating demonic energy much faster than she and Claire together.
"Alright, I'll do what you say." She nods.
Lucien kisses Eve again before looking at Saria and Kamala. "Keep everyone in the city."
"What will you do??" Claire asks in a concerned tone.
"Greets our enemies." He smiles confidently before flying towards the Naga army.